Part 1
THE PENNY MAGAZINE
OF THE
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
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35.] PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. [October 20, 1832
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CATCHING TURTLES.
[Illustration: Catching Turtles on the Coast of Cuba.]
It is not improbable that some of our readers, who reside near a great commercial port, may have seen the landing of a cargo of strange-looking animals, which, turned upon their backs, appear the most helpless of creatures, and in this condition may have naturally led the spectator to imagine that they are incapable of removing from place to place, and have therefore little enjoyment of existence. These creatures, to use the language of the epicure, are fine “lively turtles”--the term “lively” being understood to mean that they have suffered little from a long voyage--that they are in good health--and that the “green fat,” the glory of aldermen, is in the most perfect state of excellence. Without asking our readers to feel any very strong interest in the prospects of high living which the arrival of a cargo of turtles offers to many individuals who are somewhat too much inclined to set a high value upon the gratifications of the palate, we may be able to satisfy a rational curiosity as to the habits of these singular animals, which offer some higher benefits to mankind than that of furnishing the most costly luxury of a city feast.
The turtle and the tortoise belong to the same group of reptiles--in fact the turtle is a tortoise which principally inhabits the water, and is only found occasionally on the land. The two varieties represented in the above plate are the Green Tortoise (_a_), and the Loggerhead Tortoise (_b_). The former is the species chiefly used for food. It is found, in great numbers, on the coasts of all the islands and continents of the torrid zone. The shoals which surround these coasts are covered with marine plants; and in these water pastures, which are near enough to the surface to be readily seen by the naked eye in calm weather, a prodigious abundance of animals, mostly amphibious, feed, and amongst them multitudes of tortoises. Dampier, the old voyager, describing the Gallapagos Islands, says, “There are good wide channels between these islands fit for ships to pass; and in some places shoal water, where there grows plenty of turtle grass; therefore these islands are plentifully stored with sea turtle.” The tortoise, whether of the land or water species, is, as most of our readers know, protected, both on the back and belly, by a hollow shield, which is open at each end, for the issuing of the head and fore-feet at one time, and the tail and hind-feet at another.
The upper shield is termed the back-plate, or buckler; the lower shield the breast-plate. The middle of the buckler, in most of the species, is covered by numerous pieces or plates resembling horn in texture and composition; and the beautiful substance known by the name of tortoise-shell is obtained principally from a small species called the Hawksbill. The feet of the marine tortoises are much longer than those of the land, and their toes are united by a membrane so that they swim with great facility. The head, feet, and tail are covered with small scales. The jaws of the wide mouth are not provided with teeth, but the jaw-bones are very hard and strong, and being at the same time very rough, the animal is enabled to consume its vegetable food with ease, and at the same time to crush the shell-fish on which the marine species also feed. The green tortoise attains an enormous size and weight; some individuals measuring six or seven feet in length from the tip of the nose to the extremity of the tail, by three or four feet broad, and weighing as much as eight hundred pounds. Dampier says, “I heard of a monstrous green turtle once taken at Port Royal, in the bay of Campeachy, that was four feet deep from the back to the belly, and the belly six feet broad. Captain Rocky’s son, of about nine or ten years of age, went in it (meaning in the shell) as in a boat, on board his father’s ship about a quarter of a mile from the shore.” The green tortoise commonly weighs from two to three hundred pounds.
The instinct which leads the female turtle to the shore to lay her eggs, exposes her to the danger of becoming the prey of man. She deposits her eggs on the loose sand, and abandons them at once to the chance, which approaches almost to a certainty in the southern hemisphere, that they will be hatched by the influence of the sun’s rays. She digs, by means of her fore-feet, one or more holes about a foot wide and two feet deep, in which she usually deposits more than a hundred eggs. These eggs are round, and are two or three inches in diameter; they are covered with a membrane something like wet parchment. The female generally lays three times in each year, at intervals of about a fortnight or three weeks. They almost always go ashore in the night time. A loose sand being essential to the hatching of the eggs, the turtles frequent only particular shores; but these are often several hundred miles from their feeding places. The eggs are hatched in less than a month after they are laid; and in about eight or ten days the young reptiles crawl to the water. Few, however, reach their native element, in proportion to the number produced. They become the prey of sea-fowl and various quadrupeds of prey. The tiger is an especial enemy to the tortoise; but man is still more actively engaged in their destruction. The collection of tortoise eggs forms one of the most important of the occupations of the Indians of the Orinoco. Humboldt has given a most interesting account of this branch of commerce, of which we shall furnish an abstract in a future number.
The wood-cut at the head of this article represents the manner in which the marine tortoises are caught on the coast of Cuba, and on parts of the South American continent. The Count de Lacepede, in his History of Oviparous Quadrupeds, has described the various modes in which the business of tortoise-catching is carried on; and we shall conclude this notice with an abstract of his account. It must be remarked that the turtle is a most important addition to the ordinary mode of victualling a ship; and that, therefore, the war in which the human race engages against them is rendered absolutely necessary by the wants of navigators. The turtles which are demanded in England for the gratification of a luxurious appetite, constitute a very small number, when compared with those which offer an agreeable and salutary food to the hardy crews who are engaged in the commerce of the tropical seas.
“In spite of the darkness which is chosen by the female tortoises for concealment when employed in laying their eggs, they cannot effectually escape from the pursuit of their enemies: the fishers wait for them on the shore, at the beginning of the night, especially when it is moonlight, and, either as they come from the sea, or as they return after laying their eggs, they either dispatch them with blows of a club, or turn them quickly over on their backs, not giving them time either to defend themselves, or to blind their assailants, by throwing up the sand with their fins. When very large, it requires the efforts of several men to turn them over, and they must often employ the assistance of handspikes or levers for that purpose. The buckler of this species is so flat as to render it impossible for the animal to recover the recumbent posture, when it is once turned on its back.
“A small number of fishers may turn over forty or fifty tortoises, full of eggs, in less than three hours. During the day, they are employed in securing those which they had caught in the preceding night. They cut them up, and salt the flesh and the eggs. Sometimes they may extract above thirty pints of a yellow or greenish oil from one large individual; this is employed for burning, or, when fresh, is used with different kinds of food. Sometimes they drag the tortoises they have caught, on their backs, to enclosures, in which they are reserved for occasional use.
“The tortoise fishers from the West Indies and the Bahamas, who catch these animals on the coasts of Cuba and its adjoining islands, particularly the Caymanas, usually complete their cargoes in six weeks or two months; they afterwards return to their own islands, with the salted turtle, which is used for food both by the whites and the negroes. This salt turtle is in as great request in the American colonies, as the salted cod of Newfoundland is in many parts of Europe; and the fishing is followed by all these colonists, particularly by the British, in small vessels, on various parts of the coast of Spanish America, and the neighbouring desert islands.
“The green tortoise is likewise often caught at sea in calm weather, and in moon-light nights. For this purpose two men go together in a small boat, which is rowed by one of them, while the other is provided with a harpoon, similar to that used for killing whales. Whenever they discover a large tortoise, by the froth which it occasions on the water in rising to the surface, they hasten to the spot as quickly as possible, to prevent it from escaping. The harpooner immediately throws his harpoon with sufficient force to penetrate through the buckler to the flesh; the tortoise instantly dives, and the fisher gives out a line, which is fixed to the harpoon, and, when the tortoise is spent with loss of blood, it is hauled into the boat or on shore.”
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THE FLEMISH LANGUAGE.--No. 2.
Perhaps our readers may not be unwilling to see a few more specimens of the Flemish language. It should be stated that this book of dialogues, from which our last specimens were taken, contains at the end a kind of manual of good manners, it being the opinion of the writer--“that youth have long been in want of a treatise on manners, which should be based upon our usages, and adapted to the state of our knowledge.”
We give a few of the maxims of this Dutch Chesterfield for the use of those whom they may concern.
Directions for behaviour at table:--
Het _zoud_ neémt men met You must take the _salt_ het _punt_ van het mes, with the _point_ of het welk men aen zyn your knife, after _brood_ moet afvaegen. having wiped it on your _bread_.
Instead of a literal translation we have given the meaning, marking with Italics a few words which are the most striking in the two languages. But besides those which we have marked, other similarities, such as _welk_, “whilk or which,” will be detected in this and the following specimen:--
_Daer is niets zoo _There is nought so ongemanierd_ dan _iet_ unmannered_ as to take van de schotel te _aught_ from the dish neémen met het _forket with the _fork_ waer_ men _mede eét_. wherewith you eat, or, literally, “_where man_ with _eats_.”
We think so; and we also say with the Dutch Chesterfield--
_Opent_ den mond _niet te _Open not_ your mouth wyt_ als _gy eét_. _too wide_ when _ye eat_.
The reason for this precept is obvious; the Dutch Chesterfield has, however, thought it necessary to tell his countrymen the _why_ and _wherefore_ of it.
Vraegt _niet te drinken Ask _not_ (for something) terwyl gy zup eét; wagt _to drink_ the _while tot dat gy iet_ anders ye eat soup; wait_ till _geëéten hebt_. _that ye somewhat (aught)_ else _have eaten_.
And, above all,--
Gaept _niet rond ter wyl Look not (gape) _round_ gy drinkt_. the _while ye drink_.
Perhaps these maxims may be enough for one lesson. The original goes on for some length, and, finally, admonishes young folks not to carry off cakes, apples, &c. in their pockets from the table. We cordially concur in this advice.
We shall conclude with directions for sitting at table:--
Als _gy zult gezeten_ When _ye_ shall be zyn, _struht u niet uyt _seated_, _stretch ’o op_ uwen _stoel; zet not out_ upon your seat uwe beenen niet (_stool_); _set o’_ overeen;_ wiegt _niet_ legs (_bones_) _not_ met _uwen stoel;_ maer over (across) one _houd u regt, de voeten another; rock not with op_ den _grond _’o stool;_ but _hold geplaetst_. ’o right_ (straight) the _feet placed_ on the _ground_.
Directions how to hold hats and reticules in company:--
Eenen _jongeling houd_ A _younker holds_ his zynon _hoed_ op zyne _hat_ (_hood_) _upon_ _knieën_, zonder het his _knees_, but binnenste te _laeten without _letting_ you zien_, Eene _jonge _see_ the inside (het dogter_ houd insgelyks binnenste.) A _young _haere_ tassche _op girl_ (daughter) haere knieen_. _holds_ in like manner _her_ bag on her _knees_.
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COMETS.--No. 1.
Most of our readers must have heard of the comet of Biela, which appears in the present year, and has caused no small alarm among those who are entirely ignorant of the nature of comets in general, and of the track of this particular one. We have met with an amusing little book on this comet of 1832, by Littrow, professor of astronomy at Vienna, from which we shall give the substance of a few extracts, that may not be uninteresting.
There are only four comets whose orbits are yet accurately known. That which appears in the present year is called Biela’s comet, from its having been discovered by an Austrian officer of that name in Bohemia in 1826. Its period of revolution round the sun is six years and two hundred and seventy days. Though it had been seen before in 1772 and 1805, it was not known to be a comet of so short a period. In the present year, 1832, we shall have its fourth visit. On the 27th of next November the comet will be nearest to the sun, but even then about seventy-two millions of geographical miles distant from that body: and on the 22d of this month (October) it will be nearest to the earth, and at the distance of about forty-four millions of miles from us.
The number of comets must be very great, for the appearance of near five hundred has been recorded; and if we consider how many must have passed unnoticed in the early history of the world for want of persons to observe them, we may form some idea of the prodigious quantity of these bodies. From 1769 to 1807 no comet appeared that attracted any attention from people in general, though astronomers during this period observed no fewer than thirty-six. There being then so many of these wanderers whose course is unknown, it may be supposed a possible thing that one of them should run foul of the earth; and supposing it to be a body of any considerable magnitude and density, such a shock would entirely put an end to the present order of existence. Setting aside however, the question as to the magnitude and real nature of comets, let us consider what chance there is of our knocking against the comet of the present year, which, from the position of its orbit, looks much more threatening than any other that is known.
On the 29th of the present month this comet of Biela will be distant from a certain point in the earth’s _orbit_ only about 2⅓ of the earth’s diameters, or about twenty thousand miles in round numbers. If the earth were at this very point of its annual track on the same 29th of October, it _might_ happen that we should feel such effects from the comet, or from the enormous mass of vapour composing it (computed to be more than one hundred and fifty times greater than the mass of our earth,) as to destroy all animal and vegetable life. But as the earth will not be at this dangerous point till the 30th of November, or thirty-two days _later_ than the comet, we shall have nothing to fear from it this time. For the earth moving in its orbit at the rate of about 67,680 geographical miles in one hour, it will be 51,978,240 miles distant from the comet on the 29th of this month, and in no danger at all of being affected by it in any way that we can estimate.
Perhaps few people will trouble themselves about this comet any more, when they learn that they are quite safe for the present. But how, it may be asked, are we sure that on some future occasion we may not approach too near? If the comet should be in its nearest point to the sun on the 28th of December, instead of the 27th of November, then we should really approach it within the short distance above-mentioned. But this near approach cannot take place, unless the comet should be in its nearest point to the sun in the latter part of December; and this again will not take place till the year 1933, when the comet will be in its perihelion (i. e. nearest point to the sun) on the 31st of December, and again in the year 2115, on the 26th of the same month. But, should the comet’s period of six years and two hundred and seventy days be somewhat changed in the course of the next century, from the action of Jupiter and other planets, (which is far from improbable,) this would diminish still further the chance of any unpleasant proximity in the years 1933 or 2115. This we hope will console those who regard this visitor with more feelings of fear than curiosity.
It may be added that this comet is a very small one, and, though its vapour occupies so enormous a space, the real kernel or bright part of the comet is not more than sixty or eighty miles in diameter; and hence it is conjectured that if it really is a _body_ properly so called, it must be very small indeed, and that, even in a near approach to the earth, any injury that it might do by its attraction would be hardly felt. Again, says Littrow--“as to the tail and its deadly vapours, which, as they say, threaten us with such dreadful consequences, we really have nothing at all to fear from _them_: and for the following plain, but quite satisfactory reason--the comet has no tail.”
The following conclusion will, we hope, remove whatever apprehension may still lurk in the minds of the most timid, as to the danger which they have to fear from this comet in the years 1933, 2115, and in subsequent years--should their lives be so far prolonged.
“We have already stated that Biela’s comet can only come near the earth when it is at its least distance from the sun, in the latter part of December. But since this proximity of the comet to the sun may just as well happen on _every other_ day of the year as in December, and since its period is six years two hundred and seventy days, or about two thousand five hundred days, in round numbers,--after a lapse of two thousand five hundred years, a near _approach_ (not an actual collision) to the comet is _probable_. I say merely _probable_, from which it must not be concluded that such an event actually will take place in two thousand five hundred years. This result merely means that a man might bet two thousand five hundred to ten, or to one hundred, that the comet will not come _near_ the earth for the next ten or one hundred years. At the end of two thousand five hundred years there will be an equal chance that the comet will make this near approach, or that it will not. And after two thousand five hundred years the chance of its approaching the earth will go on increasing, but at so slow a rate that many thousands of years must elapse before the event can be _really_ expected.”
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THE PARTHENON.
[Illustration: Remains of the Parthenon.]
We shall proceed with our description of the Athenian antiquities in the British Museum, as soon as the collection is numbered according to its present arrangement. We understand from the Officers of the Institution that this essential assistance to the visitor will be immediately given; for the old order of the several pieces of sculpture being considerably altered, a reference to the former numbers only would prove embarrassing. In the mean time we give that view of the Parthenon, for which the representation of the temple of Apollo Epicurius, near Phigalia, was substituted by mistake.
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NAPLES.
In a preceding number we endeavoured to give our readers a notion of the situation and main features of Naples. We shall now devote a page to a few of the interesting objects contained within that city.
The first in importance is the _Studj_ or _Museo Borbonico_, or, what we may better call, the National Museum. In many respects this magnificent establishment is unrivalled in the world. Besides a rich statue gallery which boasts the Farnesian Hercules, the all perfect Aristides, the Farnesian Toro, a Venus perhaps superior in loveliness to the Medicean, and other masterpieces of ancient Greek art, the Museum contains a gallery of pictures with two of Raphael’s best works, and splendid specimens of Titian, Correggio, Claude, Salvator Rosa, and other great masters; and, moreover, a library, a collection of Etruscan vases, a cabinet of ancient coins and medals, and rooms filled with the ancient relics of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
The collection of vases, which have nearly all been discovered and dug up in the kingdom, is the richest in existence; but it is more especially the collection of the objects rescued from the two interred cities, that gives the Museum of Naples its superiority to others.
In this collection are found some of the most perfect works of ancient art in bronze, domestic implements of nearly every sort, mechanical tools, surgical and mathematical instruments, rings, necklaces, and other specimens of jewellery, and even the entire apparatus of a woman’s toilet. The attentive visitor, by studying these objects, may in a few hours obtain a better insight into the domestic manners of the ancients, than whole years devoted to books can give him. One of the most interesting departments of this unique collection, is that of the papyri, or manuscripts, discovered in the excavations of Herculaneum. The ancients did not bind their books (which, of course, were all manuscripts) like us, but rolled them up in scrolls. When these of Herculaneum were discovered, they presented, as they still do, the appearance of burnt sticks, or cylindrical pieces of charcoal, which they had acquired from the action of the heat contained in the lava that buried the whole city. They seem quite solid both to the eye and touch, yet an ingenious monk discovered a process of detaching leaf from leaf and unrolling them, by which they could be read without much difficulty. When these manuscripts were first exposed to the air a considerable number of them crumbled to dust. Our countryman, the late Sir Humphry Davy, destroyed the integrity of a few by making unsuccessful experiments, which he fancied might produce a result that would supersede the slow and laborious process now adopted; but about eighteen hundred still remain. Four of them have been unrolled, and fac-similies of them, with translations, published by the Neapolitan government.